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Paula’s Wines of the Week starting 2nd January 2018

Inevitably some of us will have put on weight over Christmas and, if like me, you not only cooked the food but ate it too then the waist-band button is probably straining a bit. One way of dealing with this post-Christmas excess is to reduce the daily intake of calories. Wine contains calories, averaging 85 in every glass, so drinking two fewer glasses a day is the equivalent of removing a slice cake from this woman’s recommended 2000 daily calories (good news for men as you are recommended an extra 500 calories a day on top of this).

The actual number of calories in a glass of wine varies – high levels of alcohol and sugar can easily double the average number. Dry wines with a low alcoholic strength will have the lowest calorie count. Choose English and German wines while dieting as the northern European cool climate only allows alcohol volumes to get to a maximum of 12% (that’s pretty low compared to the 14 or 15% alcoholic strength wines commonly produced in the hotter wine producing areas of America or Australia). For the lowest number of calories in a glass try German wines, 9% alcohol is not unusual.

But if reading wine labels for their alcoholic strength and counting calories isn’t your thing then let someone else do all the hard work for you. Weight Watchers range of wines calculate the calories for you. Zinfandel Rosé, Refreshing Rosé, Smooth Red, Fruity White and Purely Pink (available supermarkets or direct) contain 80 calories a glass. But saving so few calories compared to any everyday bottle of low alcohol, dry wine may persuade you to extend your choice beyond these pleasant, easy drinking choices.